Modern Horizons 3 is one of the most impactful sets that Wizards of the Coast has ever released. For competitive Magic players, modern is the most popular format. For a long time, you were able to buy into a deck and play it for a reasonably long amount of time. Old decks like Affinity, Jund, Jeskai Control, or Tron were playable for a long time. The first two Modern Horizons sets upended the balance of power in the format with cards like Wrenn and Six, Urza, the pitch elementals, and more. The third set in the vaunted Modern Horizons lineage doesn’t seem like it has the upper end of power level like those first two sets, but rather spreads out the power for more decks to see.
With the Pro Tour in Amsterdam coming up, we’ll see what the format looks like fully, but for now, based on Magic Online results, we can see some different decks rising to the top. Of the big winners from the new set, we’ll take a look at Ruby Storm, Mardu Midrange, Jeskai Control, Mono Black, and of course, the boogeyman, Bant Nadu.
Ruby Storm
The new cards from this deck include Ral, Monsoon Mage and Ruby Medallion. For those who haven’t been around in Modern when Storm was a thing, it’s a combo deck that plays a bunch of spells that add red mana to your mana pool, then you cast a card like Grapeshot or Empty The Warrens, and it copies that spell for each spell cast before it. This time around, Ral and Medallion make it so your red/instants/sorceries cost less, so all these two mana spells in the deck get discounted.
That helps the deck get around one of the most powerful sideboard cards in Chalice of the Void. Against Storm decks of the past, you could slam that on “one” and it would help slow the deck down enough for you to win, not here, as this deck plays just 2 one mana cards.
This deck can be red and white or red and green depending on what you want, but you for sure need red cards. Ral is one of the most powerful cards from Modern Horizons 3 and this deck goes to show that.
Mardu Midrange
Of the decks with new cards, Mardu Midrange gains the most from Modern Horizons 3. The Energy subtheme of the set is on display a little bit here with Guide of Souls, but that’s really just a good one drop for any sort of aggro deck. Combine that with Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury, Ajani, Nactl Pariah, and Sorin of House Markov, and you get a really efficient aggro deck that can put tons of pressure on combo opponents. Older cards like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and the pitch elementals from Modern Horizons 2 tie the entire thing together.
This might be a new deck, but it’s not really a new archetype for Modern. There’s always been a midrange-style deck like this, but this one seems fairly popular in the new format. If you’ve been a fan of Jund style decks in the past, this could be for you.
Jeskai Control
For those control mages out there, this is the deck for you. If you like seeing the hope drain out of your opponent’s face as their spells get exiled, countered, destroyed, or just sit in play, you might want to play Jeskai Control. The Energy cards I was talking about before are on full display with Tune the Narrative, Galvanic Discharge, and Wrath of the Skies. These spells combine together to allow the deck to answer a variety of card types and board states that might get too big for single removal spells to handle. The threats are cards like Phlage, and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student.
Tamiyo is particularly impressive in this deck because you can easily flip it, it’s a wizard for a card like Flame of Anor, and the backside gives you plenty of card advantage and defense for decks trying to attack your life total. This archetype seemed like it was dead for a long time in Modern, but new efficient answers have brought it back.
Mono Black Midrange/Scam
Scam decks were once the bane of Modern’s existence (they still kind of are), but this new variation of the deck is an entirely different beast. This deck uses new cards like Sorin and Necrodominance, but also a somewhat combo kill with Soul Spike. Add to that the previous offenders like Grief, Orcish Bowmasters, and modern stalwart Thoughtseize. This isn’t quite what I would call a Midrange deck, but it acts like one, nonetheless.
If you’re wondering how that “combo” works, you draw a bunch of cards with Necrodominance and then exile black cards to cast Soul Spike for free. Necrodominance might be a wordy card on face, but it really just allows you to draw an excessive amount of cards to bury your opponent in card advantage.
Bant Nadu (The Boogeyman)
Strap in, because this one is wild. Nadu, Winged Wisdom has created an entirely new, resilient combo deck in Modern. It works with the way that Nadu is worded and the “Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand.” part of the card. You use the card Shuko, which has an equip cost of “0” to target your creatures. Each of them gets two Nadu triggers and you draw a bunch of cards, or put a bunch of lands into play. The kicker is that if you play a new copy of Nadu or somehow blink (exile and return to the battlefield) the old copy, that “This ability triggers only twice each turn” text on the card gets reset.
So you activate Shuko on your creatures, draw your entire deck, and then play Thassa’s Oracle and win. If your opponent is doing any sort of disruption to that combo, you still trigger Nadu if they target it with removal spells. So there’s not really a good way to trade with the card profitably. Other cards in the deck like Urza’s Saga, Chord of Calling, and Summoner’s Pact help you find your combo pieces. Then you get cards like Springheart Nantuko that let you combo off in other ways, by making excess copies of creatures to equip Shuko to.
It’s really a crazy deck that isn’t too fun to play against on Magic Online because of all the triggers, but in paper, you can simplify the combo so it doesn’t take very long.
Modern Looks Like It’s In A Powerful, Yet Full Of Parity, Place
The Pro Tour coming up in Amsterdam could change all of this with a breakaway new deck that the pros have designed, but for now, it looks like the Modern format is in a good place after Modern Horizons 3. These new decks might be exceptionally powerful, but they’re all equally powerful with ways to answer other decks and apply pressure. If you like combo, control, aggro, midrange, or whatever else, there’s a deck for you out there.
What are some of your favorite cards from Modern Horizons 3? Let us know in the comments!
If you need any cards from Modern Horizons 3 or any other Magic set, grab them from Collector Legion.
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